Seven Principles (Archived Post)

              Over the years, I have developed a few principles that I try to apply both in my personal and pastoral engagement with pop culture.  These principles guide the content of this blog.

 Seven Principles for Christians Engaging Popular Stories:

(May apply for other forms of art in Pop Culture)

1.     Stay Grounded: “Nothing is more practical than finding God, than falling in love in a quite absolute, final way. What you are in love with, what seizes your imagination, will affect everything. It will decide what will get you out of bed in the morning, what you do with your evenings, how you spend your weekends, what you read, whom you know, what breaks your heart, and what amazes you with joy and gratitude. Fall in love, stay in love, and it will decide everything.” – attributed to Fr. Pedro Arrupe, S.J.
      - This is certainly in keeping with one of the most important elements of Jesuit spirituality, the "Principle and Foundation" of Saint Ignatius of Loyola's Spiritual Exercises, which states, "Man is created to praise, reverence, and serve God our Lord, and by this means, to save his soul.  All other things on the face of the earth are created for man, to help him fulfill the end for which he was created... and so in all things we should desire and choose only those which will best help us to attain the end for which we were created."  

2.     All Things Have Meaning: Expect nothing to be “just entertainment”
      (example here)

3.     Authentic Critique: Recognizing Both the Good and the Bad in a single work 
      (examples here, here, here)

a)     Acknowledging good in a work is not a complete stamp of approval

b)    Acknowledging faults is not a total rejection

4.     Learning to Listen
      (example here)

a)     C.S. Lewis drew the distinction between “using” and “receiving” in his book An Experiment in Criticism

b)    Be critical, but not overly defensive.  Pay attention, not only to possible answers being proposed, but the questions being asked.

c)     “When you love someone, you listen. Not pretending to listen while you’re formulating your argument. Really listen. You listen especially to their heart, to the cry of their heart. When you love the culture, you listen to it. You try to hear it, to understand it, to hold it close. Listening is not agreeing, not condoning. It is merely saying, “Hearing you express the deep, inner murmurings of your heart is an honor for me. Thank you for sharing yourself with me.”” – Rebecca Cusey, Patheos blogger. Read more: here

5.     The Augustine Principle: You have made us for Yourself, O God, and our hearts are restless until they rest in You.
      (examples here, here, here, here)

a)     Humans were made for God + Art reflects human experience ⇒ The longing for Love, Truth, Goodness, Beauty, and Meaning will usually be found in art, even if not explicitly understood as directed toward God or coming from Him.

b)    Look for the human experience and desire expressed.  Consider how Christ fulfills that desire and sheds light on that experience.

6.     Two Stories, One Truth
      (examples here, here, here, here, here)

a)     Reality & Fiction reflect each other

b)    Compare & contrast the Hero/Main Character’s Story & Yours

7.     Knowing When To Let Go
      (example here)

a)     Just because it has meaning, doesn’t mean it will ultimately be good for us.

          b)    Even the meaningful things are only as good as their capacity to lead us to live well in reality with Christ.
          - And so, we come full-circle, by ending where we began, with Saint Ignatius's "Principle and Foundation," which continues, "man is to use these things to the extant that they will help him to attain his end... likewise, he must rid himself of them insofar as they prevent him from attaining it... and so in all things we should desire and choose only those which will best help us to attain the end for which we were created."